


In the dark of the night

by Pearlislove



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-04-21 06:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14278569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: An evil entity is trying to exploit The Doctor. But unlike the Doctor first thought, it is not Clara that is being held hostage...Careful, prepared for the worst, Clara glances back at  the screen, and feel her heart sinking. The two women lies in an unmoving pile on the floor, one of them resting on top of the other. They look peaceful, almost as though they’re sleeping, but blood is dripping into the dark haired woman’s hair, and for the first time since the screen lit up, Clara can feels tears trickling down her cheeks.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to try something grim & dark...so here we are!

"I will stop you!" The Doctor exclaims confidently, starring the cybermen straight in the empty eye sockets.   
  
"You can't Doctor! Or you will have to pay the prize." The voice chuckles dryly, the words falling out of the metal mouth even more sinister than the robot face that it chose as its physical manifestation.   
  
A chill run down Clara's back, and she shudder violently. She doesn’t know what it is planning to do, but something told her that this ancient evil didn't do empty threats.   
  
"You won't touch Clara. I won't allow it!" Alarmed, The Doctor moved out in front of Clara, his hand sneaking around her arm and holding on to her behind his back. She could feel he was shaking, and oh, they were really in danger now, weren’t they?   
  
Again, the voice chuckled. It was deep and sinister and Clara shuddered again. For the first time in so long, she was scared. "Oh, but it is not  _ Clara _ who will die."   
  
Behind the robot, a screen lit up across the wall, at least thirty tiny sections of it flickering to life one by one. They're all showing some sort of live footage, a video feed of what is being seen by a camera somewhere far away. With a starke, Clara realised that somewhere down on Earth, this monster has accomplices, and as the screen woke she knew that whatever was being filmed was not something that neither she nor The Doctor would want to see.   
  
When all the little cubes have come to life, one of them starts to grow, increase in size until it occupy the space of ten small screens. 

 

Now big, what is being shown on it becomes much clearer, and Clara can't help but gasp as she sees what it has to show.   
  
An elderly woman, probably well into her seventies based on her appearance, lies curled up on her bathroom floor. Her posture is tense, one arm held over her face in order to protect it from harm. Coming through loud and clear from the speakers on the wall, Clara can hear the woman’s frightened sobbing echoing around the room.    
  
"Doctor, who is that?" She can barely speak, too terrified to try and put it all into words, but she has to ask. She has to know what this is, and who it is she is seeing.   
  
Before The Doctor can answer, a terror filled scream rip through the air. Instinctively, Clara's eyes snap to the screen, and she can see that the sobbing woman has been replaced by a grey haired man, his back against a wall and his dark eyes wide in terror. 

 

_ “Polly!”  _ The man cries, and from somewhere behind the camera, a woman comes stumbling into view. A mechanical arm follows behind her, pushing the white haired woman roughly against the wall when she doesn’t move fast enough. As it does, the woman's legs give out, and she slid down to the floor instead. The man follow her, the both of them disappearing out of sight at the bottom of the screen.   
  
"Who are these people? Why are you showing me them?!" The Doctor scream, his voice steady but his body shaking. Already without looking at his face, Clara knows that he is faking it. Each of the tiny screens are filled with terrified men and women, many of them elderly,but some very young as well, and each of them are being threatened by the machine feeding them live feed.

 

There is only one reason that the machine would have picked them, particularly, and Clara knows why.

 

They were friends of The Doctor.   
  
"Do you really not know them, Doctor? Do you really not care?" The voice is sharp, threatening, and as the robot lift a hand, two new screens are enhanced.   
  
The first one shows a destroyed living room. Broken furniture is spread out on the floor, bits and pieces mixing with books, papers, glass and ceramics. A bookshelf has been overturned, supposedly meaning to halt the intruders, but the camera easily floats over it and continue.   
  
As the camera moved forward, a green two seat couch soon comes within view. It is missing it's couch pillows, but is otherwise undamaged, and Clara watch in horror as the enemy goes for it. Climbing up into it, the camera angeles down behind it.   
  
"No!" The Doctor's scream is horrified and desperate, his hole body stumbling a few steps back in shock, and Clara has to follow not to be crushed by his body against hers.   
  
Careful, scared, Clara peeks out from behind The Doctor. She can feel her stomach doing a sickening 180° turn as she sees what the camera i showing.    
  
A dark haired woman is sitting curled up behind the sofa, knees pushed her chest, as she rocked back and forth slowly. She's hiding her head behind her knees, seemingly trying to mimic some kind of emergency position similar to those they show in airplane safety instructions. As the camera move closer, Clara can hear her mummering.  _ “Not real”  _ she murmurs, repeating the words over and over as though it will make them true.   
  
Resting deadly still by the woman's feet, is the body of another woman. Her eyes are closed, her skin pale and covered in gruesome bruises who’s rainbow of colours make it look as though someone decided to paint her face while she slept. Her blonde hair is caked in dry blood, fresh blood still trickling down her face from a cut on her forehead.   
  
No matter how much she looks at ver, Clara can't tell if the other woman is dead or alive.   
  
"So, you do know them, Doctor?" The voice is smug, and Clara can feel her fear suddenly replaced by anger. This man, this entity, this voice, it was torturing these people for no reason at all. No reason but to scare The Doctor. And it made her mad.   
  
"Let him be! Let them be!" She calls, stepping out from behind The Doctor so that the robot can see her fully. "They did you nothing! You...you should let them go!’ Clara knows her words are useless, but she can’t keep quiet. Not when the muffled sound of innocent people sobbing fills every moment of silence, and their torture is being streamed live for her and The Doctor to witness.

 

“Not until The Doctor gives me what I want.” The robot replies, the voice smooth and matter of fact. Clara can hear it shrugging. It didn’t care, it didn’t make any difference to them, but for her and The Doctor it was  everything.

 

The Doctor would never let anyone suffer in his place. He didn’t allow such things, he just didn’t. Normally, Clara would call it a good thing. Empathy and love for other people was never misplaced.

 

Never misplaced, except when it was your own life that was in the balance.

 

“Doctor don’t do this. We can save them some other way.” She squeezes his hand tightly, praying that he won’t go through with the offer. It’s a trap, she sees it so obviously, and she knows, that if he says yes they are all dead. All these people, falling dead to the floor the moment the entity didn’t need them as hostages anymore.

 

But The Doctor is too kind and these people, whoever they might be, are too precious to him. He lets go of Clara’s hand, step forward, and looks straight at the robot. “And what if I don’t? What will happen if I don't submit to you?”

 

The robot doesn’t answer. Instead, it simply raises it’s fist, making the screens switch.

 

The new camera is further away from it’s hostages, allowing a full body picture of the middle-aged woman kneeling on the floor. Her greying brown hair is tousled, standing like a cloud around her head, and one of the arms of her cardigan has been torn off. In her arms, she hold a second woman. One hand is placed on the small of the woman’s back, the other one at her neck, hiding her face against her shoulder. 

 

_ “What do you want of us? What are you?! _ ” 

 

The speaker crackle, the woman’s demand coming through after a few seconds delay. Unlike most others, protecting their heads and hiding their faces, the woman on the scream straight into the camera. Instead of being horrified, she looks determined, demanding answer.   
  


_ “Pat, be careful...”  _ Worried, the woman hiding in ‘Pats’ arms move, tries to lift her head or detach from her friend or partner, but the other woman only clings to her tighter, determined to keep her face away from the camera.

 

_ “Don’t look Liz!”  _ The green eyed woman exclaimed, sudden horror filling her face as something happens off camera. Slowly, Clara can see a metal arm moving up into view of the camera. It’s pointing straight at the dark haired woman, some kind of red coloured glow building up around the metal frame as the camera moved closer to the robots victim to be.

 

The woman on the screen scream, and Clara can hear herself screaming along as the metal rode fire. Three shots of glowing red energy, shooting through the air at the speed of lightning. Without even knowing anything about the robot or the weapon, it is clear enough that the moment those shots hit, the unknown woman will be no longer.   
  


“I WILL DO WHAT YOU WANT!” It is not until The Doctor scream, his voice panicked in a ways Clara has never heard it before, that she realizes that she looked away.

 

Careful, prepared for the worst, she glances back at  the screen, and feel her heart sinking. The two woman lies in an unmoving pile on the floor, one of them resting on top of the other. They look peaceful, almost as though they’re sleeping, but blood is dripping into the dark haired woman’s hair, and for the first time since the screen lit up, Clara can feels tears trickling down her cheeks.

 

They were never going to escape alive. Not her, not The Doctor, not any of the people of the screen.

 

They were all doomed.

 

“I’m sorry, Clara” The Doctor's arms envelop Clara, and she looks up at his face. His eyes are obscured by the sunglasses, but they can tell he is crying. Gently, he pat her in the cheek, and smile.

 

It’s the saddest smile Clara has ever seen, the image of it staying in her mind as she watch him disappearing it a side door that has opened up in the wall. She doesn’t want him to go, knows that he is walking into a trap, but she lets him do it anyway.

 

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s never felt like a more appropriate figure of speech. Whatever The Doctor did,  Clara didn't think she would make it out of there alive. Whatever The Doctor did, it wouldn’t bring back those who had already died.

 

The moment The Doctor disappear, all lights seem to go out. A deep, terrifying darkness surround Clara, and the only source of light still there is the shining screen on the wall. All those terrified people, their broken sobs echoing in the speakers.

 

Quietly, Clara walks up to them. For a brief moment she wonders if they can see her. If they know, what is happening there on the other side. If they knew their deaths were being broadcasted for The Doctor to watch.

 

Exhausted, she sit down. She leans against the wall, her face hiding against the back of her knees like the dark haired woman behind the sofa.

 

Indistinguishable among all the voices, Clara’s sobs and tears join those of everyone else who once knew The Doctor, and was now paying for his sin.

 

As she cries, Clara prays for them. She prays that they won’t have to suffer, and that  they will all die so that it will soon be over.

 

Clara wish, that all these unknown people will find peace, her mental prairie growing stronger as the screens behind her starts to go out. Candles, snuffed out one by one, and Clara can only assume that this is the end. That as the screens disappear behind her back, these people die, and she waits for her own end.

 

She waits, taking one last, deep breath as the last screen behind her goes out.

 

Then There is only darkness.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is dedicated to ShyWhovian
> 
> Sooo, here it is! Chapter 2! The supposed fix it...
> 
> Fun game: tell me how many companions you spot in this chapter. Hint: it's at least 5 minus Clara

When Clara opens her eyes, she firstly can't tell where she is. Her breath comes is shallow bursts, her heart beating all too fast and the more she tries to focus the worse it gets. It’s all there at once, all the memories running through her head like one long feature film. The image of the frightened faces refused to leave her alone and she can hear the sound of crying and screaming mixing in her ears.   
  
"Miss, can you hear me? Miss please, try to breath. Deep breaths." Finally, a voice cuts through the chaos. It's calm and cool and collected, grounding Clara with it’s simple  instructions as she struggled to push away everything else.   
  
Slowly, Clara opens her eyes. As she does,  the first thing she sees is a white haired woman staring at her. She got vivid green eyes, smiling kindly and patting Clara on the shoulder as she notice that she is conscious.   
  
"That's good. Keep breathing deeply." She advices, and Clara nods. Something about her is so very familiar, but Clara can't pinpoint it.    
  
"How is she doing, Liz?" A dark haired  woman comes walking towards them, smiling slightly as she addressed the white haired woman crouched in front of Clara.   
_   
_ __ "Don’t look Liz!”   
  
She hears the woman calling out in her ears, and suddenly, it all makes sense. Clara looks at the two women in front of her, and she understand. She sees the crusty, dried blood on one of the woman's forehead, vivid red smeared out on the white shirt belonging to the other.   
  
Clara had seen them being killed on the screen. She had seen the laser fire, heard the screams, and witnessed the bodies lying piled up afterwards. 

 

They had been gone.

 

Looking behind them, Clara can see more familiare faces looking back at her. Pale and terrified, the faces of The Doctor’s former companions stared back at her from around the room. As they finally got a good look at her, too, mouths started to move, and a low mumble started to spread throughout the room.

 

The first face that Clara noticies among the masses, is that of the old woman she’d seen lying on her bathroom floor. Someone has stuck a plaster across her cheek, obviously meaning to cover an injury, and she looks scared, wet tears trickling down her cheeks as her dark eyes met Clara’s. As they meet, Clara can suddenly see an unfamiliar scene playing out in her head. A memory that was not hers, appearing in her mind as though it was.

 

_ “Naturally I shall protect you. It wouldn't do to have you injured, now would it, hmm?” An old, white haired man smiled. He’s leaning heavily on his cane and eyeing her approvingly. _

 

As the scene fades, Clara break eye contact and the memory disappear. Without any explanation, Clara knows, that it was that woman‘s memory of The Doctor that she just saw. The vivid recollection of a man long gone, shared via a psychic connection quite unintentional.

 

“You’re all former companions!” Clara exclaimed with sudden intensity, standing up to see the room and it’s occupants properly. She’d figured it out earlier, but forgotten, and now it was all coming back to her.

 

She look around, and she soon recognises more of them. She sees the gray haired man and his wife, Polly, and then far off in the corner, an eerily familiar dark haired woman in her forties. She is chewing her lips, horror lingering in her eyes as she watched Clara. One of her arms is kept wrapped around the shoulders of another woman. She got dried blood colouring her blonde hair brown and someone painted a rainbow on her face,  but her blue eyes are open and livid. 

 

“He is that man, right? the one that you worked with?” Patsy whispered to Liz down by Clara’s feet, and Liz nodded meaningfully. 

“Do you? Do you travel with _ The  _ Doctor?” The blonde haired girl with rainbow face, she looks up and smile at Clara. It looks weird and deranged on her bruised and battered face, but Clara couldn’t feel happier to hear her talk, to get the confirmation that she was, in fact, alive.

 

“Yes, yes I did. Do. I do travel with The Doctor. I am here because like everyone else, like all of you, The Doctor brought me along for the ride.” Clara smile, not quite sure what it is that makes her happy about all these still traumatised people being caught in a room, bunched together and unable to move for no reason that any of them knew about.

 

“Where is The Doctor? Why did those machines take us here?” A boy asks. He is maybe 17 or 18, and he has his arms wrapped tightly around a girl who looked to be maybe twelve. “They wanted to kill us! Me and Sky and...and Liz! I saw them fire those lasers!” The boy argues, gesturing wildly to the white haired woman. Clara shudders, wishing he wouldn’t have brought that up again. 

 

“They were dummies. False. Only made us fall asleep, it seems. Like...oh, stunners in Star Trek maybe?” A woman with greying brown hair and a stricken expression intervened. “But what I don’t understand is why we are here? Whatever this is, it got nothing to do with us! Most of us long since left The Doctor… and I, for one, do not wish to ever see him again!”

 

“Well, The Doctor isn’t here! So far, you’re still good to go, Miss Chaplet!” Kate Stewart snapped, pulling her beige coat closer around her and leaning against the wall. For the first time ever, Clara thought Kate almost looked insecure. “So, Miss Oswald, will you please explain why we were first almost killed by killed robots, and then forced here against our will?”

 

Clara was about to reply, but was beaten to it by a tiny white haired woman. The woman was so small that Clara hadn’t even seen her until she leaned out from behind the man next to her, smiling cheerily. “They’re keeping us hostages to exploit The Doctor, darling! Me, you, Dodo, Barbara, Ben, Polly, Liz and Miss Oswald. Every single one of us in this room. They want something from him and they kidnap his friends to make it happen. In the old days, your dad used to have to save me from situations like that every week.” The woman smiled, gesturing wildly around her as she explained. 

 

“It was exactly what happened.” 

Clara confirmed quietly, ignoring how everyone began to mumble among themselves again as they heard it. “They said they were going to kill you all if The Doctor didn’t do what they demanded.” She bite her lip, trying to suppress tears. “He went with them, and...and it seems... I think he died.” Tears roll down her cheeks, but at the same time, the wall behind her disappeared, and a strong white light flushed the room.

 

“I’m scared!” The little girl nearby screamed, clinging on tight to her brother as the lights washed over them.

 

“Back off!” Liz grabbed onto Clara’s arm, dragging her along with them further into the room, away from the missing wall and the bright lights shining down on them. None of them knows if it'll help, but they move anyway, trying their best to escape as good as they could.

 

Somewhere along the way, an arm reach out, pulling Clara up onto a bench beside her. She was dark haired with caramel coloured skin, and while she did flash Clara the smallest of smiles, it quickly melted away again as she turned to look towards the light.

 

From the light a dark shadow emerge, a person stepping out onto the floor in front of them. Two steps in, the shadow pause. The harsh lights hide everything except his silhouette, but Clara knows he is watching them. She can feel it, his eyes burrowing into her as they swept across the room.

 

“Liz Shaw, Patricia Haggard, Ace McShane and Tegan Jovanka” The man calls out suddenly. “Come forth!” He demands, throwing his hands out in an open gesture. A golden glint is reflected by the light, and suddenly, Clara understands.

 

Around Clara, a quiet mumble was rising into the air, whispers flying back and forth as everyone was quick to throw in their two cents.

 

“Don’t do it!” Luke said, pulling his sister closer. 

 

“It’s a trap!” The little girl added, the sound muffled by her brother’s arms around her body.

 

“Do we have any choice?” The woman next to Clara asked. Her lip tremble, tears threatening in her eyes as the man beside her pulled her closer. “He’s already tried to kill us once” The last few words are whispered, so quiet Clara could barely hear them, but the man nodded understandingly.

 

Looking around her, Clara could see that many of the others were reacting in much the same way. Curling up against friends and partners and strangers, trying to find comfort wherever they could as they waited for what was to come. 

 

As they waited for what might be their death.

 

“Are they here?” The man calls out again, his voice echoing around the large space so to the point it sounds oddly distorted. Clara can feel a shiver running down her spine, her inside suddenly cold as she reacted visibly to the voice. It felt unsettling, somehow, the voice echoing inside her head long after they stopped speaking. 

 

As another tremor passed through her body, Clara felt the person next to her slipping their hand it hers. It was a small, soft, well manicured fists, and when Clara turns to look at the woman, she is met with a pair of huge, blue eyes.

 

“Don’t worry miss. The Doctor will save us. He always do.” The woman, probably somewhere in her mid-fifties with dark brown hair and a childish, baby like face, reassured. Clara would have easily thought her to be her own age, hadn’t the wrinkles around her eyes and her mouth given her away. Carefully, she squeezed Clara’s hand. “It will be alright” She says in the soft, high pitched voice that she had, and with the small smile on her lips, she almost seemed to believe it.

 

Clara wondered how anyone could keep such hope during such horrible circumstances, impressed and charmed by the woman’s gentle positivity.

 

“I said, are they here?” The voice repeated his demand. Somehow, it almost sounded scared, a slight tremor running through it as they spoke. “Are they dead or alive?!” The second exclamation is definitely panicked and scared. The woman beside Clara squeeze her hand harder, and without thinking, Clara squeeze back.

 

The new tone of voice seemed to cause a shift in the behaviour of everyone in the room, and suddenly the called for people are gathering. Supported by her partner, the bruised woman slipped off the bench, and Liz and her partner soon followed. Together, they walked forward towards the opening in the wall.

 

“WE are here!” The bruised woman, Ace, exclaimed.

 

“WE, are alive.” Liz repeated.

 

“Tell us, what do you want with us?!” Ace’s partner asked, clinging all the tighter to her lover. She looked panicked, but her voice, laced with a thick Australian accent, spoke of anger more than anything.

 

“I want…” The man began, stepping forward and out of the light, at long last revealing himself. “To know that you're alive.” The Doctor smiled gratefully, and a collective gasp emitted from everyone gathered in the room, almost like a wave sweeping across the sea and crashing against the shore. 

 

Beside Clara, the baby like woman was pulling violently at her arm, her face shining with obvious excitement. “I told you!” She squealed. “The Doctor has come to save us all!” She exclaimed. 

 

Breathless from the surprise and shock, Clara tries to find words to express her feelings, but fail. Up front, The Doctor is hugging as many of them as he can reach, pulling them in and holding them close and enjoying the feeling of knowing that they are in fact still alive and breathing after all. 

 

Slowly, the rest of the people in the room are moving as well. Seeing that the danger appears to be over, they jump off chairs and benches, still clinging to each other as they approached The Doctor. Happy smiles and hopeful faces shine among the masses, and Clara can hear how they start to talk.

 

“The Doctor always come through”

 

“I knew he’d protect us”

 

“I can't believe it’s really him, after all this time”

 

Beside her, the tiny baby faced woman is pulling at her arm, urging Clara to come along with her and all the others.

 

As she turn to look at Clara, her eyes shine with tears but she is smiling. “I wish Jamie was here to see this. He wouldn’t have doubted The Doctor for a single second!” The woman laughs, almost giggles. 

 

To her surprise, Clara finds herself laughing along. All the tension and fear is lifting off her shoulders like helium balloons that have suddenly been set free, and it feels incredible.

 

And she’s not the only one. People are laughing and screaming and celebrating, the fear emptying out of the cramped space. In truth, none of them are safe yet, but they can’t be bothered to care as they laugh and smile and celebrate.

 

“Hurray for The Doctor!” Someone among the audience scream, and a loud cheer erupts hands clapping as everyone celebrated The Doctor.

 

Only Clara didn’t celebrate. She stood at the back of the group, watching the men and women and children celebrating. She saw their eyes, glowing like blazing fires as they watched the saviour.

 

To them, The Doctor would always be infallible. It was like cult, people so blinded by the glitter and gold that they put their lives in the hands of the saviour, never once faltering in their belief that he would save them.

 

In her mind, Clara vowed never to get that caught up in the glamour of life with The Doctor. 

 

At the front, The Doctor had raised his hands, trying to quiet the crowds so that he could address them. “Please be quiet” He says, and though he sounds like a principle at a school assembly it works like a charm. 

 

Around him, everyone snapped into attention. The celebrations stopped abruptly, all sounds dying out as the hole mass moved as one to look at The Doctor. It almost appeared like mind control, close to thirty people moving en masse to look at The Doctor.  

 

“Thank you” The Doctor smiled. “Now, if you’ll step through here” He gestured to the still quite brightly shining opening beside him. “One at the time please, unless you are going to the same place. Take it easy, and take a deep breath as you step through.” He instructed with ease, allowing for Liz and her partner to step through first. A blinding flash of light spread through the room, and when Clara next could see, the two of them were gone.

 

Clara smiled. It felt good that everything was slowly starting to solve itself.

 

“Are you excited to go home?” The woman beside her hugged her arm, dragging her attention away from Tegan and Ace, who were now stepping up to the light. 

 

Clara smiled slightly. “I guess so.” Clara admitted. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at The Doctor. He was standing lent against the wall, smiling a smile that quite obviously fake smile as his companions disappeared in flashes of light. His eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses, but Clara was convinced they’d be sad if she saw them.

 

“Well, you’re his, aren’t you? Right now, I mean. We’ve all been his at some point” The woman giggle, taking another step forward as the crowd moves. 

 

“Yeah I am…” Looking at The Doctor, Clara felt as though she should go to him. He looked so sad and solemn, leaning against the wall with tears trickling down his cheeks. “I’m sorry, I need to go!”

 

In a second, Clara pulled free, running up beside all the people queuing to go home so that she would finally be reunited with The Doctor.

 

“Doctor!” She screamed for him, and he looked up, passively letting her  hug him as they united. Though she was smiling he hardly seemed to feel the same.

 

“They’re leaving” He whispered quietly. “Going back to their normal, mundane lives and never even realizing how close they were to dying. They’ll wake up in the morning and wonder where the bruises and broken bones came from. They won't know a thing.” The Doctor explained.

 

“You mean they’ll forget it all?” Clara didn’t know that. She didn’t know that it was all going to disappear from their minds.

 

“Yes they will” The Doctor nodded. “You see her there?” he asked, pointing in the direction of the small, dark haired woman who earlier had argued that she didn’t want to see The Doctor again. “Her name is Dorothea Chaplet. She came into the TARDIS thinking it was a Police Box and wanting to report an accident. Then she asked if she could come along. She was only nineteen, didn’t even know I had just allowed her ancestor to walk away to her death”

 

“She said she’d promised herself never to step foot in the TARDIS again.” Clara whispered, remembering so clearly the panic the woman had showed at the realisation that she might once more be put up face to face with The Doctor.

 

“She left me with a promise to never return. Our travels were too much for her to handle. She was too young and too fragile, but I didn’t realize it until it was too late.” The Doctor shook his head, before pointing at someone else instead. “And her there, see her?” He asks, pointing out into the crowd, and Clara nods once more, recognising the other tiny brunette intended.

 

“Yes. She sat beside me. She spoke of a man named Jamie, and told me he would be so proud of you for saving them. Made her sound like a child.” Clara explained, horrified as she saw a new darkness entering The Doctor’s eyes.

 

“Jamie McCrimmon, he traveled with me..” The Doctor paused, shook his head, then continued. “Her name is Victoria Waterfield. She was kidnapped by the daleks when she was just fourteen. Her father died on the daleks home planet, but I saved her. I found her a couple in the 1970s who were willing to adopt her...but in a sense, I guess all those horror made it hard for her to grow up” He concluded sadly.

 

Clara nodded, watching the tiny woman standing there at the back of the que. Biting down on a red painted nail, she looked from side to side, subtly cleaning tears off her cheeks with a handkerchief. “Doctor...why are you telling me this?”

 

“Because when you realised that they would forget, you acted as though it was a bad thing. But it is not, it is good. They don't deserve more pain that I’ve already caused them.” The Doctor said, taking a deep breath and preparing to speak again. “Tegan Jovanka, The Master killed her Aunt Vanessa. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, her parents broke up because her dad was always working with me at UNIT. Barbara Chesterton I kidnapped and kept away from Earth for two years because she followed my granddaughter home from school. I have caused so much pain for them, and so many many more, some of which have even  _ died _ .” As The Doctor finished explaining his eyes were ablaze. He was upset and in pain, all furrowed brows and angry scowl. 

 

It scared Clara. She wanted to comfort him, but didn’t dare to, and before she had the chance to make a decision about what to do, they were interrupted.

 

“Bye Doctor” Passing by them, the teenage boy Clara saw before wished The Doctor goodbye, waving a hand and smiling happily. One of his hands was occupied by his sister, as innocent as an angel in a dirtied white dress and small, glitter covered red kitten heels.

 

“I love you Doctor!” To Clara's great surprise, the girl accompanying the boy didn’t settle for waving as she passed by. Instead, she ran up to The Doctor, wrapping her arms around his midsection and hugging him tight. “Mum always told me she loved you, and now I’m saying that because I love you too” After speaking, the girl in the white dress promptly burst into tears.

 

From the sideline, Clara watched in absolute shock as The Doctor patted the girls hair, holding her close to him and comforting her as best he possibly could. Patiently, he whispered words of comfort and stroke her cheeks and tried to lift her mood.

 

“Sparky, come on. We need to get home, I’m scared Gita and Haresh are going to notice we are gone, and then we’ll be in trouble.” The boy, Luke, smiled and reached out a hand to the little girl to take again.

 

“Coming!” Laughing, ‘Sparky’ ran back to her brother, taking the offered hand in hers. Wet tears still shone on her cheeks, but she was smiling, and Clara could tell The Doctor had been successful. 

 

“I love you too, Sparky.” The Doctor smiled, watching the two of them disappearing through the light of the opening into the TARDIS.

 

standing there alone, The Doctor wore a dopey smile that Clara had never seen before while tears still dripped down his cheeks. It was almost surreal, making him appear another man entirely.

 

“Oh Doctor” Stunned, Clara wrapped her arm tightly around The Doctor’s waist instead, hugging him as they watched the men and women disappearing one at the time. As they disappeared, many of them glanced over the two if them, waving or smiling and whispering quite goodbyes before they were gone. None of them knew what would happen once they stepped through, and yet they all seemed resigned, accepting and compliant in their destiny. 

 

“Doctor…” Clara whispered, when there was only a handful of people left and the moments passing between people stepping through grew longer. 

 

“Yes?” The Doctor looked at her, and though the tears had dried the pain in his eyes remained.

 

“Look” Clara ordered, making him turn around to face the last remaining companion standing by the portal.

 

A brown haired woman stood by the portal, her face damaged by wrinkles and lines, but her eyes as innocent as the day they said goodbye.

 

_ Victoria Waterfield _

 

Before The Doctor’s eyes, he saw the scene change. Her smart suit transformed like cinderella's rags into an 19th century ball gown, and from behind her back a young scotsman came into view, his hand protectively wrapping around her waist.

 

Beside the two of them, there was a small girl in a twinkling jumpsuit. She smiled and waved as she caught sight of The Doctor.

 

“Doctor, are you…” Clara began, hardly believing what her eyes were seeing as the lone woman transformed, an abundance of other people appearing out of nowhere to join her.

 

“Yes” The Doctor said simply, because he was.

 

He saw as a small boy with a star in mathematical excellence and young girl in a satin dress emerged. The both of them were holding one hand each, leading a white haired woman in a ghastly knitted sweater along with them to Victoria, Zoe and Jamie.

 

“We miss you, Doctor” Sarah Kingdom smile, her movements gentle and loving as she link arms with Katarina, leading her to join up at the back of the group.

 

“And we’re always here” Evelyn whispers, her arms lovingly wrapped around Adric and Nyssa.

 

“But we need you to go” Sarah Jane and The Brigadier says in unison. Their faces were blurry, and at this point The Doctor understood that he was slipping away.

 

-

 

“I want you to come back” The Doctor doesn’t know if he’s imagining or if somehow all those people who died are really standing there, but he’s beyond caring as the ghosts start to fade. “It wasn’t right that you left!”  

 

He scream, making his voice go hoarse repeating every curse word he ever learned at thin air, until suddenly, someone is speaking to him.

 

“Doctor!” 

 

Clara’s voice cut through the fog and with a starle, The Doctor opens his eyes. He is lying on the bottom of the stairs to the second floor in the library, Clara carefully bent down beside him with one hand under his neck and the other on his chest.

 

“What happened?” The Doctor felt confused, Clara’s face as alien to him as a face he had never known.

 

“You fell asleep on the top of the stairs, had a nightmare, and fell down the stairs. Hit your head pretty bad.” Clara winced. “And mine, too.”

 

“Yours?” The Doctor felt terrified, reaching out to try and touch Clara’s head. 

 

Skillfully, Clara ducked, avoiding The Doctors hand. “I tried to stop you from rolling down half way and you pulled me along. Then I had a weird dream too.”

 

“Killer robots tried to kill my former companions. They were there, all of them…” Slowly, The Doctor sat up, rubbing at the back oh his head. He had a pretty large bump.

 

“I know, I saw it as well. There was this woman, she held on to me, and she smiled so brightly even though we were so scared…” Clara explained, remembering the little old lady with the clear blue eyes and honest smile. It had seemed so real then, yet as soon as she woke up in the library, she knew that it wasn’t. It was just her and The Doctor, knocking themselves unconscious and dreaming the weirdest of dreams.

 

“I can’t just been a dream.” The Doctor protested weakly. It wasn’t possible, not when he could still remember the pain and panic of thinking that Liz died. The warmth, when he got to hold her in his arms again.

 

Not doubting his actions for a moment, he pulled out his phone typing in a number more natural than breathing.

 

_ Kate Lethbridge-Stewart _

 

“Wait” Clara grabbed on to his arm, holding it. Carefully, she used her other hand to delete the number from the screen. “They wouldn’t remember. You said, in the dream, that they would forget it the moment you returned them home.”

 

“Then I must have deleted our memories. Warped them. Made it all seem like a dream” The Doctor decided, nodding with finality. “That must be it.”

 

Mildly surprised by his conviction, Clara shook her head. “I don’t think so” She tried to be gentle, but she couldn’t let The Doctor live in delusion. It had been frightening sure but nothing more than a dream. They could leave it behind.

 

The Doctor and Clara starred each other in the eyes, moments passing as they said nothing. Thoughts and fears and doubts festered between them, until finally they resorted to walking off in different directions.

 

One thought it happened. 

 

One thought it didn’t.

 

No one knew the answer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Commenr and kudos, please! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Comments? Did you like it? Hate it? Please tell!


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